The Indians jumped on Perkins quickly, taking a 1-0 lead after a two-hit, one-walk (the first walk a Twins pitcher issued in this series) first inning and adding to their total with a three-run, four-hit third. Perkins settled in for a one-two-three fourth, his only such inning of the day, and worked through a scoreless fifth despite giving up a leadoff double to second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera before Matt Guerrier took over in the sixth.

Minnesota finally cracked Cleveland starter Aaron Laffey (though the 4-for-4 Jose Morales clearly had him, and every other Indians pitcher he faced, figured from first pitch) in the seventh, loading the bases with one out, scoring two runs on Denard Span's pinch-hit single and keeping the bags full for Justin Morneau. By then the Twins had pushed Laffey and reliever Jensen Lewis off the mound in favor of Tony Sipp, a hard-throwing left-hander fresh from Class AAA.

Pitching in the second big league game of his career, Sipp's task was daunting -- retire Morneau and the hot-hitting Jason Kubel after him. The 25-year-old handled it brilliantly, mixing a diving slider and a hard fastball to fool Morneau into an on-his-heels swinging strikeout and duping Kubel for a check-swing K to nullify the jam-packed basepaths.

With Cleveland's new closer Kerry Wood on the mound in the ninth, Morales led off with hit No. 4 (his first career four-hit game) and pinch-hitter Brian Buscher drew a four-pitch walk. But Span couldn't come through again, grounding into a 4-6-3 double play and Brendan Harris struck out looking to end the game and Minnesota's chance of a sweep.